RAMS AND CARIBOU 



wall mounts was In no manner impaired, as none 

 of the necks or shoulders were spoiled. 



Most all the rams killed by us carried horns of 

 the diverging type. As to the terms "narrow" 

 and "diverging" as used to describe the character 

 of spread in sheep horns, there does not seem to 

 be a perfect unanimity of understanding among 

 sportsmen on the significance of the terms. For 

 instance, one set of sportsmen (the writer in- 

 cluded) has classed as "narrow" the heads of 

 narrow spread, and as "diverging" those of wide 

 spread. Charles Sheldon, author of "The Wil- 

 derness of the Upper Yukon" and other books, 

 and who has given deep study to the big game of 

 the North, says that insofar as his use of the 

 terms is concerned, it is a question of angles 

 wholly — with the cheek of the animal as the 

 perpendicular. When the horn sweeps downward 

 approaching this perpendicular (some horns, I 

 believe, almost parallel it) he classes it as the 

 "narrow" type. As horns sweep outward to- 

 ward a right angle they diverge away from the 

 perpendicular. This type he calls "diverging." 

 Thus, a set of horns with an exceedingly wide 

 spread, such as ovis poli and ovis ammon (Asiatic 

 specimens) would be classed by Sheldon as nar- 

 now types, because, although they flare out at 

 the tips and have world-record spreads, they 

 sweep downward close to the cheek of the animal 

 before flaring out. 



177 



